Improved sub-assemblies and methods of control for use in a diagnostic assay system adapted to receive an assay cartridge are provided herein. Such sub-assemblies include: a brushless DC motor, a door opening/closing mechanism and cartridge loading mechanism, a syringe and valve drive mechanism assembly, a sonication horn, a thermal control device and optical detection/excitation device. Such systems can further include a communications unit configured to wirelessly communicate with a mobile device of a user so as to receive a user input relating to functionality of the system with respect to an assay cartridge received therein and relaying a diagnostic result relating to the assay cartridge to the mobile device.

Methods are provided for separating magnetically responsive beads from a droplet in a droplet actuator. Droplet operations electrodes and a magnet are arranged in a droplet actuator to manipulate a bead-containing droplet and position it relative to a magnetic field region that attracts the magnetically responsive beads. The droplet operations electrodes are operated to control the droplet shape and transport it away from the magnetic field region to form a concentration of beads in the droplet. The continued transport of the droplet away from the magnetic field causes the concentration of beads to break away from the droplet to yield a small, concentrated bead-containing droplet immobilized by the magnet.

The present application provides a method and a system for integrating morphological characteristics and gene expression of individual cells. The method comprises the following steps: providing a microfluidic device, which comprises a microwell array and an interdigital electrode, and each microwell comprises a plurality of capture oligonucleotides; injecting cells into the microwells, capturing a single cell and recording morphological characteristics of the cell; lysing the cell so that the mRNA released by the cell is captured by the capture oligonucleotide; reverse transcribing the captured mRNA to obtain cDNA; performing a PCR amplification reaction on the cDNA to obtain a cDNA library and sequencing the cDNA library; reading the cell barcode sequence and the unique molecular identifier sequence according to sequencing results, and the morphological characteristics and gene expression of the cell in the microwell are integrated together.

A method of conducting a biological assay, comprises obtaining data corelative to a temperature of a reagent, mixing the reagent with a sample to provide a mixture, receiving from the mixture a signal indicative of an amount of an analyte in the sample, and correcting the amount based on the obtained data and on a type of the reagent.

The invention refers to a method of detecting nucleic acid sequences in biological samples from medical, agricultural and biotechnological sources, and a corresponding device, that can be used in health care, in particular in laboratorial diagnosis, to detect genetic sequences, with the objective of identifying viruses and diseases arising from genetic malformations, bringing novelties of using saliva samples, making extraction of RNA from the genetic material from the sample, through a small device with low complexity and innovative design, with the advantages of portable, rapid results, with on-line connectivity to a test results center, dispensing frequent visits to the doctor, hastening the start of treatment, allowing access for groups of people and eliminating the need for a highly qualified operator.

A method to monitor and control the temperature of a sample holder of a laboratory instrument during execution of a temperature profile on the sample holder is presented. The laboratory instrument comprises a sample holder with high temperature uniformity and at least three identical temperature sensors. The measured actual temperatures of the sample holder are processed in order to determine if the execution of the temperature profile should be continued or aborted. Furthermore, temperature sensors which measure actual temperatures that do not fulfil certain requirements are excluded from further monitoring and controlling the temperature of a sample holder.

Provided is a digital microfluidic device for quick polymerase chain reaction. The digital microfluidic device includes an enclosed chamber for holding droplets comprising PCR mixtures. The chamber has an upper layer and a lower layer, which provide a top heater and a bottom heater contained in a thermal electrode respectively to form dual heaters. The lower layer further has an array of electrodes and a dielectric layer, e.g. Norland Optical adhesive 61, coating thereon. Such arrangement of the digital microfluidic device allows quick and homogeneous heating of droplets to lower the heating voltage, shorten the reaction time, and prevent the dielectric layer from breakdown during the thermal cycle.

An apparatus, system, and method for filtering and assaying a fluid sample are described. In an embodiment, the apparatus includes a filtration unit comprising: a filter bracket shaped to removably couple with a fluid sample cup and a vacuum container; and a filter housing cooperatively couplable to the filter bracket and comprising a filter configured to filter fluid passing through the filter bracket; and an assay device shaped to cooperatively couple with the filter housing and comprising a porous matrix positioned to be in fluidic communication with the filter when the filter housing is cooperatively coupled with the assay device.

Systems and methods for recovering content of a sample from a microcapillary array are provided. The microcapillary array includes a plurality of microcapillary wells. A laser is positioned to target a first microcapillary well in the plurality of microcap-wells. The laser pulses at least one time at the first microcapillary well. The content from the first microcapillary well is extracted, recovering the content of the first microcapillary well.

The present invention relates to the field of biomedical technology and discloses a cartridge and a testing device. The cartridge comprises a sample lysis compartment, a first sample mixing compartment and a first PCR compartment; a first valve is disposed between the sample lysis compartment and the first sample mixing compartment, the first valve controls the flowing or blocking of the sample between the sample lysis compartment and the first sample mixing compartment; a fourth valve is disposed between the first PCR compartment and the first sample mixing compartment, the fourth valve controls the flow or blocking of the sample between the first sample mixing compartment and the first PCR compartment; a first reagent is provided in the first sample mixing compartment. In the compartment, nucleic acids in the sample mix with the first reagent and is then sent to the first PCR compartment for amplification.